The Land of Ozz

The Political Teen has the video coverage of today’s Discovery Shuttle launch.

James P. Hoffa announces departure of Teamsters and SEIU from AFL-CIO. Fox News reports Sen. Dick Durbin is in denial of the announcement when quoted as saying, “We have news for them. It’s not going to happen.”

Official Teamster Press Release
Official SEIU Press Release
Letter from Hoffa to Sweeney of AFL-CIO (PDF)

I have finally made the big move to combine PDA and cell phone functionality. I have ordered a PalmOne Treo 650. I expect to have it in hand and operational within the next week. This is replacing my tri-mode cell phone and old Handspring Visor Deluxe. My new device and service will come with 50% more anytime minutes of voice calling plus unlimited data (email and browsing) for the same amount that I have been paying for voice access only.

I choose the Palm OS device as a result of my personal experience with devices running other operating systems on the job. I served as a lead systems integrator on a project that utilized mobile communication devices. I was able to sample a variety of vendors and operating system combinations.

Stay tuned to the Tech Land of Ozz where I will be offering tips, tricks, and links to cool stuff for the Treo 650 in the future.

The rising cost of land has churches opening up a whole new bag of tricks to expand. I attend Seacoast church in Mount Pleasant, SC where Pastor Geoff Surratt reports that we have made the Top 10 for Multi-Site churches in the US.

Click here for the deatils from Pastor Geoff.

This spiced up grilled cheese sandwich idea is compliments of Mrs. Ozz. She took a simple sandwich and added a couple of things to make a great sandwich. First she prepared the sandwich for grilling by slicing some sharp cheddar cheese and covering a slice of white bread. The cheese was then topped with optional pepperoni slices and covered with another piece of white bread and set aside. Then she shaved some fresh garlic as shown in the picture. She added these shaved garlic pieces to some margarine to a large pan. The pan should be at medium heat before adding the margarine and garlic. The sandwich is added to the pan just as soon as the margarine has melted to allow for the margarine to be absorbed into the bread before it evaporated or burns. This will also allow for the garlic pieces to stick to the side of the bread. The garlic will become a crisp brown just before the sandwich requires turning over. Be sure to add some more margarine and shaved garlic to an unused area of the large pan and allow the margarine to melt before turning the sandwich and placing it in the new area of melted margarine. Heat the sandwich until it gets as brown as you like. I hope you enjoy this one as much as my family does.

I have made the big move and I am happy with it so far. I chose to not try and deal with moving some of my comments and trackbacks, but they do still exist on my original Blogger pages. I left the archives from Blogger in place so that links and tracks to those specific postings will work.

I think that Word Press is going to work better in the long run especially. It all runs on my server space at my hosting provider. I am not dependant on a third party editing tool to publish. It is much more flexible.

I have a few more of my older postings to move over and I will have the move pretty much wrapped up. I think I may make the move to Word Press on the Tech Land of Ozz and Grill’n Time later. For now, I plan to cross post everthing from Grill’n Time and the Tech Land of Ozz over here. I also need to get some content out. I have several things to write about and I am a little behind on my stories due to this move to Word Press on this Blog.

CBS ran a story last night that briefly mentioned that the FAA has recently revoked some medical certificates due to certain medical conditions. This little piece about medical certificates is the part I want to expand on. The story primarily focused on a young pilot in Florida who was able to learn to fly even though he suffers from a spinal cord injury that does not allow for him to walk. It was a great story and I applaud CBS for pointing out that an injury like this does not shatter all dreams.

I just recently went in to my Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) for a FAA Second Class medical certificate. I got the certificate, but it was not the easiest trip to the medical examiner this time. I have been diagnosed with hypertension since the last time I was awarded a FAA medical certificate. Here is what the FAA has to say about hypertension.

“The Examiner may issue first-, second-, or third-class medical certificates to otherwise qualified airmen whose hypertension is adequately controlled with acceptable medications without significant adverse effects. In such cases, the Examiner shall:
1. Conduct an evaluation or, at the applicant’s option, review the report of a current (within preceding 6 months) cardiovascular evaluation by the applicant’s attending physician. This evaluation must include pertinent personal and family medical history, including an assessment of the risk factors for coronary heart disease, a clinical examination including at least three blood pressure readings separated by at least 24-hours each, a resting ECG, and a report of fasting plasma glucose, cholesterol (LDL/HDL), triglycerides, potassium, and creatinine levels. A maximal electrocardiographic exercise stress test will be accomplished if it is indicated by history or clinical findings. Specific mention must be made of the medications used, their dosage, and the presence, absence, or history of adverse effects.
2. Summarize the results of this evaluation in Item 60 of the transmitted application and forward the appropriate documents to the AMCD.

3. Report the results of any additional tests or evaluations that have been accomplished.

4. If appropriate, state in Item 60 on the FAA Form 8500-8 that the applicant’s blood pressure is adequately controlled with acceptable medication, there are no known significant adverse effects, and no other cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or arteriosclerotic disease is evident.

5. Defer certification if the person declines any of the recommended evaluations.”

I reported on my application for my new medical certificate that I had been diagnosed with hypertension since my last FAA examination and that I was taking blood pressure medication regularly to regulate my condition. I was referred back to my attending physician just like the rules above require. I did all of the tests required including blood tests, ECG, and daily blood pressures for a few days. During this process my attending physician told me that several of his other patients were pilots who had been diagnosed with hypertension. He said that many of them used the same medical examiner for their FAA medical examinations and that this was the first time he had ever been asked to provide the items listed above. That inforamtion was very disturbing to me.

I can only come to a short list of possible reasons why a pilot would not need to go back to their attending physician with this issue especially using the same AME that I use.

• The pilot has not tried to renew their medical since the diagnosis
• The pilot went to a new attending physician to meet the above requirements
• The AMA missed the diagnosis on the application
• The pilot forgot to report their new diagnosis (yeah right)
• The pilot lied on their application for the medical certificate

The last reson in this list is the most disturbing to me and the one that I fear is the more common reason for my doctor not seeing his pilot patients coming back for the same reason that I did. I can only speculate on that.

I encourage any pilot who has been diagnosed with anything new since their last medical to report it on the application. Any false or information intentionally omitted from the application leads to an invalid certificate. I find it difficult to believe that a pilot who is able to remember to take medication every day could forget to list blood pressure medicine on an application for a medical certificate that clearly asks for the information. A pilot who lands in court due to some aviation related incident might easily be found at fault regardless of other circumstances simply due to operating an aircraft with an invalid medical certificate.

I realize that I have not provided any specific instances of people getting in trouble with invalid medical certificates. I hope my first story on such a thing is not related to someone I know. I hope that this story helps my fellow pilots understand the importance of filling out official applications correctly and completely. My Second Class Medical was granted. It was not the most fun process I have ever endured, but I see it as necessary.

Sources:
AOPA Online Members Only -– Medical Subject Report -– Hypertension
FAA Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners - PROTOCOL FOR EVALUATION OF HYPERTENSION

I beleive I am about to make the jump to WordPress with one or more of my blogs. My only real beef with blogger is that it does not allow for categories. At least I have not found a way to do it. I have emailed the support folks and received no response. I am testing by cross posting some of my stuff to the TESTING area.

I will keep at least one Blog on Blogger. Blogger does integrate some really cool features that I like even though I do not use them a bunch. One is podcasting with Audio Blogger. I have tested it from my home and cell phones and it works as advertised. I can still post MP3 files manually with WordPress after recording with my iRiver MP3 Player.

This message will be posted on the test site as well.

You can read the details on the Contact Us page that tell you how to receive an email each time Caden’s Page is updated.

After looking at the Contact Us page you may wonder if I am worried about publishing our address on the Internet. No, not really. If you have a registered phone number or own property in most large counties then you can easily be located on the Internet anyway. Read my recent story titled Online Truth Part Two: Personal Information for details.